When comparing GLBasic vs AppGameKit 2.0, the Slant community recommends AppGameKit 2.0 for most people. In the question“What are the best 2D game engines?”AppGameKit 2.0 is ranked 18th while GLBasic is ranked 60th. The most important reason people chose AppGameKit 2.0 is:

AppGameKit supports instant testing on all connected devices. With the push of a button you can run your game on any device connected to the development machine.

Pros

Pro

Easy to develop with

Pro

Fast 2D

Pro

Easy to learn

Pro

Support

Forum support is great. No advertising in program or forums. Company has been going for over 10 years.

Pro

3D

Unlike most multi-platform development systems, 3D is available across most of them.

Pro

Multi-platform

Code can be written once and will work on supported platforms with very little modification.

Pro

No hidden fees

PC version is free.

Full Multi-platform version requires one-off very reasonable price, and all further updates are free, however you can run a watermarked demo on your chosen platform with the free demo version.

Pro

C/C++ support

C/C++ code can be included inline or as a DLL/.o/dylib file.

Pro

HTML 5 compiling is now faster and works better

Pro

Default GUI system works fine, and has all the needed widgets needed

Only problem is position is based on position of previous widget.

Pro

Compiler is fast and produces efficient code

Pro

Free for home development

Create apps for non commercial 2D programs running on Windows, Linux and Mac OSX. The extension to create programs for other platforms, 3D or network applications requires a license key. Otherwise the "Premium" programs are limited to 10 min runtime for test purposes. There is no trial limit for the development environment.

Pro

Raspberry Pi free version available

Pro

Very fast compilation

It is a compilation based language, but the compilation is very fast. A project of about 1800 lines of code, for example, can compile almost instantly. (That's because it does not compile, it's an interpreter)

Pro

You only need to to pay for the license only

There is no charge for upgrades, or for extra platforms (the HTML5 version just appeared in the latest version), there are no subscription fees or other usage charges. If you publish onto either Apple or Google's stores you will have to pay their costs, of course, but the makers of AGK do not take a cut of this themselves.

Pro

Support

Informed, timely and intelligent feedback from the AGK forum.

Pro

Fast development

There are plenty of functions which facilitate development and deployment. For example, the AGK player immediately plays the updated bytecode on Android devices then the online site helps with building an APK file for Google Play Store in minutes.

Pro

Uses a powerful scripting language built for game development

Software produced with the App Game Kit is written in a language called AGK Script. This language has powerful inbuild commands including commands for 2D graphics, physics and networking. The commands make use of the platforms' native functions to improve performance. They are also designed to enhance code readability. The AGK Script commands have extensive online documentation.

Pro

Can be used for advanced games programming in C++

Libraries which provide the same functionality are available for the five platforms, so you can code in C++

Pro

Comes with an Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

AGK comes with an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) based on the Code::Blocks IDE for writing AGK scripts. A key feature of the IDE is its ability to broadcast compiled programs to other devices for testing.

Pro

Excellent documentation

Every function is fully documented with examples and exercises. The Tutorial PDF is a full Introduction to 3D game programming with integrated references to every functionality and its most important usecases. The documentation is regulary updated.

Pro

Plugin support for Windows

Plug-ins can now be added to the Windows platform. Create your own Tier BASIC commands and call them using the AppGameKit Basic script language style.

Pro

Performance

Ad

Cons

Con

Command set has hardly changed or been updated/improved over the years

Con

Poor 2d collision detection with rotated sprites

2d sprite rotation with collision detection isn't present and requires some annoying run-arounds to achieve what is a staple of other game engines.

Con

No multi-platform editor

Whilst Linux and Mac IDE's were started, they were never completed.

Con

No clear way to monetize apps

It's impossible to place ads. There is a third party in-app purchase library hidden somewhere deep within the forums which hasn't been updated for years.

Con

Issues don't get fixed

The Blender exporter and the 3D converter have been broken and remain unfixed for years.

Con

Only supports .ddd 3D format

This format does not support bones and only keyframe animation. 3d files will become extremely large if there are animations in models.

Con

HTML 5

HTML 5 compiling is rather slow, and doesn't allow all GLBasic features

Con

Poor GUI creation library

Its library for GUI creation is abysmal and not acceptable.

Con

Poor documentation

There is next to no documentation on using OpenGL commands in GLBasic.

Con

Terrible scripting language

MS Basic from the 70's has more features. Procedural, no OO, inheritance, basic user defined types with overloading. Nothing. It even has GOSUB.

Con

No builtin game mechanics, events, inventory.

Con

BASIC language

Even though it supports C++, it's mostly C++ mapped to BASIC without OOP.

Con

Can almost only do trivial games

The editor is rather limited, not fully polished, and 3D is missing some key functionalities (3D is work in progress).

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